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Live-Action Anime: Casshern 282

Posted by michael from the first-person-slicer dept.
Silverhammer writes "Apple Japan is hosting the trailer (Quicktime required, of course) for an upcoming movie called simply CASSHERN. There have been many attempts at so-called 'live-action anime', but this is possibly the most impressive attempt I've ever seen. Part 'Final Fantasy', part 'Brazil', with CG and green screen work that puts even 'LoTR' to shame. (Hat tip: Penny Arcade)."
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Live-Action Anime: Casshern More

Live-Action Anime: Casshern

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  • Matrix? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kundor ( 757951 ) <kundor@mem[ ].fsf.org ['ber' in gap]> on Saturday March 20, 2004 @06:31AM (#8619898) Homepage
    There have been many attempts at so-called 'live-action anime', but this is possibly the most impressive attempt I've ever seen.

    More impressive than the original matrix?

    The Wachowski brothers were very much anime-motivated in that movie...

    • Re:Matrix? (Score:5, Informative)

      by chendo ( 678767 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @08:09AM (#8620091)
      Indeed they were.

      Here [geocities.com] is a detailed comparison between The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell [imdb.com]. IMHO, page 6 [geocities.com] is the one that shows the fact The Matrix was heavily based around Ghost in the Shell. Watermelons exploding from bullets during a marketplace chase scene? Hmmmmmm...

      • And here is The Matrix vs Darkcity (Score:5, Informative)

        by laddhebert ( 570948 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @09:14AM (#8620261)
        And here's a photoanalysis of The Matrix and Dark City with side by side photo comparisons of the two movies. http://rob.mitsi.com/movies/comparisons/tm-dc_imag es.htm [mitsi.com]

        What is this...object oriented movie making?

        -L

        • What is this...object oriented movie making?

          I don't think the Wachowskis tried to hide that they borrowed some of the visual style from Dark City - in fact, the rooftop that Trinity runs over at the beginning of The Matrix was a set *from* Dark City.

          The underlying similarity, though, is because both are based on Gnosticism [gnosis.org]. Neo and John Murdoch are both the gnostic archetype of the person who realizes the true nature of the world, and so is able to control it. In one of the Matrix sequels, there is even
      • Try The Day of the Jackal [imdb.com] (the 1973 version, not the crappy Bruce Willis remake), for one.

        Sheez... I think you could pick a better example for comparison than that. I mean, watermelons exploding is a pretty well established [google.com] meme. I'm sure that there've been dozens of films with such scenes.
      • The other day I was watching an untranslated version of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG BIOS 00, and they had a clip in there from an interview with the Wachowski brothers and they were talking about their favourite anime titles. One of which was GitS, and later on in that "episode", they had some clips from The Matrix in there. Oh, only if there was a subtitled version of that I could watch so I could understand it a bit more..

    • Parallax effect..... (Score:5, Informative)

      by reality-bytes ( 119275 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @08:51AM (#8620195) Homepage
      What they've gone for here that gives a good Anime 'feel' is a 'Parallax' effect of filming; something the Matrix did not employ.

      The basis of this idea is that in the animated animes, the forground would be moved frame by frame in relation to the backround moving in the opposite direction. - This is effectively an easy way for animators to quickly produce the effect of the camera moving within a scene.

      The effect in this film appears to be replicated by actually moving a camera with a telephoto lense across the scene.

      All in all, from the trailer, the effect appears good and in combination with other anime-esque effects although I could see how it would become annoying in live-action if over-used.

      The motion effects in anime nearly all stem from the animators tricks to avoid having to constantly redraw cells when they can just move them around.

      Its quite an amusing transposition of techniques to watch.

  • Attempts? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Killjoy_NL ( 719667 ) <slashdot@@@remco...palli...nl> on Saturday March 20, 2004 @06:36AM (#8619905)
    The Sailor Moon Live-Action anime is one of the more humorous attempts

    http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainSer vl et/showid-22841/

    Or go to animesuki.com for torrents of the series.

  • BitTorrent (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CGP314 ( 672613 ) <CGP@ColinGregor y P a lmer.net> on Saturday March 20, 2004 @06:41AM (#8619922) Homepage
    Anyone else think slashdot should always include a BitTorrent seed when pointing to a huge file?


    -Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]

    • Re:BitTorrent (Score:5, Insightful)

      by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @06:43AM (#8619931) Journal
      It's an Apple site . . I dont think they're lacking in the bandwidth.
      • if your point here is something along the lines of "/. isn't likely to bring down apple, they can handle it.", fine, i agree. but i'd still really like to see a torrent for this. torrents distribute the load of the download better. i, as an end user, would likely get better performance that way. as it is, the download's taking forever, but my bandwidth's fine.
        responding to the parent, i don't think it's /.'s job to post the torrent, though. i like torrents, find them generally quite useful, and wish more pl
      • To be exact, it is an Akamai site. Which provides caching and other measures that prevent sites from suffering /. attacks.

        It is also the reason why Microsoft.com appeared to run Linux [netcraft.com].

    • Re:BitTorrent (Score:3, Interesting)

      by HeghmoH ( 13204 )
      Apple has more bandwidth than God. I think they'll be ok.
    • Then who is going to foot the bandwidth for the tracker? All your solution does is put the burdeon on somebody else.
      • and spread that burden out tremendously, often to the point where the individual chunks are well within what people are already paying for. the bandwidth to run a tracker feeding (say) 10,000 people is dramatically lower than the bandwidth needed to feed the content to 10,000 people. that's the whole point.

  • Original anime version (Score:5, Informative)

    by News for nerds ( 448130 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @06:41AM (#8619924) Homepage
    FYI DVD-box for the original anime version from 1973 [columbia.jp]

    Original anime version characters [aii.co.jp]

    One of original anime character designers is AMANO Yoshitaka, who is famous for original character designer of Final Fantasy.

  • mmm (Score:2, Informative)

    by two.oh ( 721094 )
    I don't think this will be better than LOTR, and I certainly don't think it will beat it in terms of effects. There were a lot of great discoveries as a result of research and development at Weta, and although 'CASSHERN' looks aesthetically beautiful, it doesn't seem like it even comes close to the capacity of work done at Weta. It's not to say that it indefinitely isn't, but so far it doesn't seem to be as impressive. It does look beautiful though. I've really never seen this sort of aesthetic in a liv
    • I'm not sure any modern, big budget movie could use CG and get away with not using HDRI.

  • Direct Link (Score:5, Informative)

    by FrostedWheat ( 172733 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @06:42AM (#8619926)
    The large version is Here [apple.com]! I haven't got it yet.. so go easy :p

  • Questions about CASSHERN... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by LinuxParanoid ( 64467 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @06:42AM (#8619930) Homepage Journal
    I don't follow anime that closely nor Japanese cinema at all, but I watched the trailer and the eye candy looked pretty good. I have a bunch of questions:
    1) Will there be a release in English?
    2) If so, will it have subtitles or overdubbing?
    3) Where was the movie shot?
    4) The actors and target audience are clearly Japanese. Was the rest of the production (directing, crew, special effects) all done by Japanese?
    5) Most of the writing in the trailer was Japanese (no surprise), but the title (CASSHERN) was in English. Is there any significance to this? Is this a common practice? Does the movie have both a Japanese and an English title? (I couldn't tell on the Japanese side.)
    6) The production values and trailer looked pretty darn good (and I didn't even understand what was going on...) Is there any particular reason why Japanese movies don't get released in the US the way US movies get released in Japan? Don't most US movies get released in Japanese when shown in Japan?

    --LP

    • Re:Questions about CASSHERN... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Yorrike ( 322502 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @06:50AM (#8619948) Journal
      Most of the writing in the trailer was Japanese (no surprise), but the title (CASSHERN) was in English. Is there any significance to this? Is this a common practice?

      It's a common marketing ploy with Japanese products, marketed to Japanese people. As odd as it may sound, English writing and Roman characters are seen as exotic and unusual in Japan (or so it seems from what I've read regarding Japanese culture over the years).

      • Hence the chance that on the street in Tokyo you might see a 12 year old girl wearing a t-shirt with "Free Vagina" on it. Of course, she's the spiritual cousin of all the white North Americans who have Asian-language tattoos, which could translate as "Stupid Honky" for all they know...
      • I have Japanese friends and they say that's the case with many products you see in Japan. English words are used because it looks modern and trendy, rather than actually letting the product convey its message. (And you've seen these products) I don't know what Casshern really means, and maybe it has a phonetic translation in Japanese.
    • >5) Most of the writing in the trailer was
      > Japanese (no surprise), but the title
      >(CASSHERN) was in English. Is there any
      >significance to this? Is this a common
      >practice?

      My English dictionary doesn't have the word CASSHERN.

      Alphabet is phonogram, so you can use it to write down any word with it. Japanese also has the set of phonogram called katakana which is usually used to adopt foreign words, and CASSHERN is written in katakana.

      Japanese also has the set of ideogram called kanji, which was
    • I'm going to use the movie "Battle Royale" as a guide for some of your questions because these two movies are similar in many respects.

      BR didn't get released theatrically released in the US, most likely because....well I don't think most Americans would take to it at all. And I'm not trying to insult Americans (hell, I am one), but our cultures are very different. Anime is also not usually screened in the US. I don't think the Cowboy Bebop movie did very well when it came here. This movie is based on a
    • I'll take a stab at a few of these.

      Something that looks like this big of a feature will probably see a release in the US. I wouldn't think it would make it to theatres, though.
      As far as subtitles or overdubbing, like a lot of fans of japanese-come-american stuff, I would rather see subtitles, especially on something with live people because you are not going to be able to get over the lip synch problem. In anime, you can usually get past that because the animated mouths give you enough leway, but even th
    • God willing, it will be released in America with subtitles, but it will never be released in theaters because it won't have any popular success -- only to niche hobbyists. Even if you dubbed it, I doubt that mainstream moviegoers would appreciate it. That's why Japanese movies don't get release in America like out movies do over there.

      Right. Now that I've tossed aside most of these questions as they're pretty irrelevant, I'm going to get to the point. Casshern is yet another movie remake of the classic
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Fish (Score:5, Funny)

    by melatonin ( 443194 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @07:04AM (#8619973)

    The fish [altavista.com] is our friend. Or maybe not; see if you find this useful. I got it off the story section of the Casshern site.

    As for there, the history which we walk the world where you walk the history which differs completely. The great war continues, as many as 50 years as for the world calls large Asian federal republic and European combination, it had divided into two camps. On end of the long fight, victory it did large Asian federal republic, controlling the east Asian Eurasian continent tract reached the point of. But, those which are obtained with the victory in devastation of human nature, the chemical weapon and the germ weapon, the sequela of the chemical injury and the virus and the radioactivity etc. which the nucleus brings were just the ground which becomes rough. Does the mankind sitting down, just receive loose end?

    Um, yeah.


    • Non-Fish Translation (Score:3, Informative)

      by Takuryu ( 759826 )
      Here's my brief translation of the section mentioned in the parent, as well as some background from other parts of the official site. These are from the website as it was 3 weeks ago, though I doubt the plot will have changed. (This was a quick overview I did at a friend's request.)

      Alternate future where a world war (WWII?) continued for over 50 years. The world ultimately divides into two sides: Asia and Europe, with Asia winning and forming the huge political entity of Eurasia. Still, the question l

    • Re:Fish (Score:5, Informative)

      by Quikah ( 14419 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @03:38PM (#8622170)
      I dont know if they put this up after you looked, but there is an english version of the story on the Casshern site after the Japanese version:

      An alternate world with an alternate history.

      The entire planet was divided between two opposing alliances.
      After fifty years of bitter warfare,
      the Greater Eastern Federation triumphs over
      the forces of Europa and gains dominion over the Eurasian continent.

      However, this is an empty victory.
      Years of chemical, biological and nuclear war have poisoned the land and
      left an exhausted population at the mercy of every pestilence and newly-mutated disease.

      It seems that there's little hope for humanity's future.
      Debate rages over the chances of finding some way to stave off
      the seemingly-inevitable decline of civilization.

      One man comes forward with a possible solution.
      Dr. Azuma is a geneticist who proposes a "neo-cell" treatment that
      can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind.
      He's driven in his studies by a desire to save his beloved wife, Midori,
      from the ravages of pollution-related disease.

      He appeals for funding to the government
      but the politicians in the Health Ministry turn him down,
      fearing that the new technology will threaten their entrenched powers.

      However, a sinister faction in the powerful military makes
      a secret offer to provide the support he needs to further his research.

      When an incident occurs in the lab that sends
      the Professor's "neo-cell" cloning experiment haywire,
      a race of mutant human beings (Shinzo Ningen) is unleashed upon the world.

      Instead of being the savior of mankind,
      the Professor's miraculous technology looks set to threaten its very existence...
  • What hope does this have for a U.S. release? Or, put another way, do I need to get into Anime to enjoy a movie like this?

    • Re:U.S. Release? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SubtleNuance ( 184325 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @11:46AM (#8620869) Journal
      Enjoy a movie like this? Are you kidding? OF COURSE!

      The USA has been exporting massive amounts of 'cultural products' for the last 100years. To everyone *outside the USA* (or english speaking countries), it is in a 'second language', yet, its still they eat it up.

      Now, consider this trailer again, imagine that it wasnt in Japanese -- what would you be thinking of this movie? It frankly looks terrific. If this movie were coming out of America, it would be MASSIVE. One of these days soon IMHO, Japan is going to drop a blockbuster on the USA. Its cultural products are very much palatable to the American Cultural Sensibilities (for bad as well as good, the USA->Japan post WWII influence is imense) -- Japan is very much due to have its own modern Culture play well in Peoria.

      Maybe this movie is it, maybe not, but Japan is becoming a more influencial player in international 'style' and culture. And really, being a fan of Anime is not a pre-requisite. Im sure this movie will stand well no its onw.
      • 'Now, consider this trailer again, imagine that it wasnt in Japanese -- what would you be thinking of this movie?"

        Honestly? Well, if it was made in America by Hollywood I'd probably be thinking "oh great, they're trying to cash in on anime now......this is gonna suck". The fact that its in Japanese makes it more authentic to me and makes me want to see it JUST because I wouldn't be supporting Hollywood, and it looks awesome.

      • To everyone *outside the USA* (or english speaking countries), it is in a 'second language'

        Woah, that was pretty dismissive of the rest of the English speaking world. You've got Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and the UK as major first world nations that all speak English as their native language. Those nations alone have 1/2 the population of the US, and that doesn't even consider the number of poorer countries the speak English (Bahamas, Liberia, etc.), or the countries where English is a seco

      • Wow, you really mis-interpreted my original message... Interesting how my sentence can be taken another way.

        What I meant was: I *want* to see (enjoy) this movie. I assume I'll like it, but will I have to hunt it down through some obscure anime fan site or will I be able to rent it at Blockbuster?
  • This is *MUCH* better than the Power Rangers! ;-)

  • YESS, that's called Kyashan in Italy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by godIsaDJ ( 644331 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @07:31AM (#8620014)
    Guys, that's gonna be great. The original anime was shown on italian tv about 10/15 years ago. It was called Kyashan which is phonetically pretty much the same. So, the story is that androids go mad and try to conquer the world (and pretty much succeed) the son of a brilling scientist which collaborated constructing the androids becomes a cyborg to save the world... There are a girl and a dog-cyborg that go around fighting with him... It sounds cheesy but the anime was *great* to say the least. Brilliant. And the trailer makes me hope for the best!!! Man what a news!!! I can't wait!!
    • Guys, that's gonna be great . . .

      After seeing it, I just have a couple of concerns:

      1) Nobody's eyes are anywhere near big enough. An anime character's eyes should occupy at least half of the surface area of their face, and quiver dramatically in moments of tension.

      2) Will there be enough tendrils? It doesn't count as anime unless something (preferably an entire city) gets consumed by a pulsating mass of tendrils.

  • Volcano High (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SirFlakey ( 237855 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @07:40AM (#8620034) Homepage
    If it's live action anime you want - that one is a musty watch as well. There is some pretty slick CG work in there. If you watch the specials you'll see some of the really hard (and painful) work the actors had to go though!

    IMDB Link [imdb.com]

  • Pronunciation (Score:2, Interesting)

    by crashfrog ( 126007 )
    Anybody have the pronunciation for this? Is it "cass-hern" or "cas-shern"? I caught the Japanese narration saying "ca-sher-no" but I was wondering if anybody had it in English.

  • There is an anime movie as well (Score:4, Informative)

    by Casshan-Robot Hunter ( 705420 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @08:00AM (#8620075)
    I don't know if anyone knows this, but there is a movie called Casshan: Robot Hunter (anime) that is basically the story of the series, only much shorter (kinda like the Vision of Escaflowne was for Escaflowne). It was a pretty cool movie. Was the movie that got me into anime in the first place, actually.

    They finally got it on to DVD a few months ago. Very cool indeed.

    Hail Black King!

  • Looking forward to this (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kourino ( 206616 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @08:10AM (#8620097) Homepage
    Oooh. This was made into a 4-episode OVA in 1993 (which got shown as a movie on the Sci-Fi channel, back when they had Saturday Anime ... which I remember seeing, and it kicked all sorts of ass when I was 13 ^_^; ), and was originally a 35-episode TV series which started in 1973.

    The general plot is the usual mysterious-fighter-saves-world-from-robot-army, with twists.

    it will be interesting to see this done, if only just to see how well they pull it off.

  • Yay.. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mrdavidk ( 763323 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @08:19AM (#8620117)
    I'd watch it, subed or dubed :). Anyone see the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children trailer?( http://www.square-enix.co.jp/dvd/ff7ac/)
    The Wachowski brothers were very much anime-motivated in that movie...
    Yep, but no one in the mass media seem to coment on this. I'm so sick of hearing "Matrix inspired" or "Matrix like", I know the Matrix pulled out some great effects but a good portion of them were seen on Anime before it!
    No other anime is better than Big O. Simply for the fact of the intro.
    I'm not that much of a fan of the intro, kind of chessy IMO ;). Bebop has a great into though, but terribly overplayed (the series).

  • Eye opener (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AmVidia HQ ( 572086 ) <{moc.em} {ta} {gnufg}> on Saturday March 20, 2004 @08:22AM (#8620124) Homepage
    Can't read the Jap, but from other comments I gather it's a post fallout world with androids who want to conquer the world, and a cyborg who helped create the androids wanting to save it.

    Just watch the trailer, the eery graphics is SUPERB. The interweaving of live action into anime is intriguing, and from just the trailer I can already get a sense of the style and mood of the movie, with a strong feel of Dune (future tech + medieval setting).

    I will certainly want to see this in theater, if it's not Japan only. I'm in Canada.

    PS. The trailer seems to be surviving ./ pretty well, i'll post a BitTorrent link if it goes (or anyone can on the site in my sig, post it under the Releases)

  • Going to be a wild ride (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Illserve ( 56215 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @08:28AM (#8620132)
    The future of the film industry is going to be amazing as filmmakers are finally unshackled from the limitations of physics in creating special effects. Imaginations are going to run unchecked, and thousands of great stories that have been trapped in the realm of books and cartoon will be unleashed.

    LOTR, SpiderMan, and Xmen (as well as numerous other great CGI movies) were just the appetizer for the feast of fantasy we'll be dining on during the next 20 years. It's going to be fantastic.

    • Golden age of movies (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mariox19 ( 632969 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @09:58AM (#8620403)
      The future of the film industry is going to be amazing as filmmakers are finally unshackled...

      I agree, though I believe it goes far beyond special effects.

      A lot of people would point to the "Old Hollywood" as the golden age of movie making, but I believe we are on the threshold of what will be seen as the real golden age.

      Movie making, special effects or not, is becoming much, much cheaper. What we're going to see in the coming years is an explosion of non-Hollywood movies (U.S. and non-U.S.) that are first-rate in terms of polish. So-called "independent" films are going to look as good as any other and have far more impact than they do now. Hollywood will no longer enjoy the position it has enjoyed since its inception.

      There is a wealth of talent out there -- actors, writers, directors, cinematographers, makeup and set designers, computer graphics artists -- that exist on the fringes (especially the actors, writers and directors), ignored by the money-chasing, unimagintative, group-think of the Hollywood studios. The talents of these professionals will finally be able to find a vehicle for their expression that will have a world-wide impact.

      Even more amazing than filmakers being unshackled from the laws of physics will be the results of filmakers being unshackled from the "laws" of MGM, Newline, UA and so forth.

    • poor stuntmen (Score:3, Insightful)

      by newsdee ( 629448 )
      The future of the film industry is going to be amazing as filmmakers are finally unshackled from the limitations of physics in creating special effects

      This reminds me of an MPAA propaganda/commercial that was shown last time I went to the movies: We see a stuntman describing how he does an exciting but dangerous job. And then he says something like 'see, so don't download MP3 because it puts guys like me out of work and insults all our hard work'.

      I had two immediate thoughts on it: first, "what has mp3 h
  • are you sure this is a movie based on anime? i didn't see a single person with blue hair...

    Strong Bad [homestarrunner.com]: ... and for some reason, i got blue hair. ya gotta have blue hair!

  • Plot overviews (Score:4, Informative)

    by Drunken_Jackass ( 325938 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @10:56AM (#8620645) Homepage
    Here are some plot overviews from joblo.com:

    This movie looks kick-ass. I hop it's going to have worldwide distribution, or at least worldwide DVD distribution.

    Plot #1 : (Loosely Translated from the Official Site)
    The great 50 year war continues, as for the world is divided into two camps: Asian federal republic and European combination.

    On an end of a long fight, Asian federal republic wins control over the East Asian Eurasian continent. But the victory caused a great devastation of human nature. The actions of chemical weapons and germ weapons resulted in major chemical injuries and a large "radioactivity" virus.

    Doctor Higashi, whose wife is suffering from the "radioactivity" illness, creates a "new structure cell" theory ... a theory that would create a new powerful human structure and a new life body. (Casshern?)

    Though dismissed by the hygienic ministry, Higashi continues his research with the help from a troop of authorized personnel (who is utilizing the theory because of their own selfish desire).

    Plot #2 :
    Made for 5 billion yen, "Casshern" tries to address the idealistic question proposed in Shakespear's "Hamlet" (Why do people fight with each other?) It is also a continuation of the Japanese animation, "Shinzou Ningen Casshern" which was broadcasted back in 1973. A riot occurs within the robots that were made to clean up environmental pollution. As a result, a professor of robotic engineering revised his "son" Casshern to calm the riot.

    Plot #3 :
    The world has taken a different path as we know it today. The great war has gone on for 50 years and the world is divided into two groups, the Republic of Asia and the European Union. After the long battle, the Republic of Asia came out as the victor and it has come to take over the Eurasian Continent. However, the only thing that came out of this was the demise of the human spirit, chemical weapons, germ warfare, viruses derived from nuclear bombs, the prognostic symptoms of radioactivity, and the razed land. Will mankind just sit there and look at the fall of its kind?

  • Pfff.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by IntergalacticWalrus ( 720648 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @10:59AM (#8620651)
    "Live Action Anime" ?! Yeah right, according to the trailer there is not even ONE weirdly colored hairdo.
    • And nobody has eyes the size of their head, not even the women.

      They better have at least one pantsu shot to make up for that, or they ain't getting my $8.
    • You may already know this, and I don't mean to condescend if you do, but the outlandish hair colors are there for a reason: it makes it easy for new viewers to immediately tell people apart. It's just like how the Ninja Turtles were given differently colored masks when they made the leap from comics to cartoons (originally, the comic was black and white, and they were all shown with red masks on the covers). So in live action, where you have real faces, that sort of measure would be absurd.

      As long as we'

    • You obviously missed seeing the silver-haired bishounen, then. Guy looks like he just stepped out of Devil May Cry or Xenosaga (Japanese-made games, yeah... but close enough) :P

  • Not so Anime (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JabberWokky ( 19442 ) <slashdot.com@timewarp.org> on Saturday March 20, 2004 @11:20AM (#8620753) Homepage Journal
    While I can cite many recent examples of American movies that have this look and feel to them (Dark City being a popular example, the works of Tim Burton being another, going back to ), the hypercontrolled fantasy set environment goes way way back.

    Ridley Scott is a good example of a director who does this, many French works (City of Lost Children had some recognition in the states), all the way back to Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

    Tossed in among all the HK fantasy/SF cinema, this looks like just another film. A high budget one, one that looks like it could be really good, but not some sort of exceptional breakthrough that people have been making it out to be of late.

    --
    Evan

  • Slow down, tiger!

    It may have some great CG, but I think "putting LoTR to shame" is overstating the case a bit.

    How can you even tell in quicktime?

  • Out of the kindness of my heart, here's a script (Score:5, Informative)

    by gnownaym ( 705075 ) on Saturday March 20, 2004 @01:54PM (#8621557)
    .. for the trailer. Translated and everything! (except for the one line I can't really decide on) 00:00:02 I'd like to present, to this body, one of our accomplishments. 00:00:13 It's name is "neo-biology." [more like "newly created bio"] 00:00:17 You've made all these already? 00:00:19 I've heard your wife is ill... 00:00:25 What are you going to do about Luna? 00:00:28 I can't stay alone in a place like this when my friends are fighting. 00:00:30 Cause unknown! 00:00:31 "Neo-biology"is still incomplete?! 00:00:38 What are you saying? 00:00:40 That the military is moving. [its forces, etc, whatever] 00:00:44 I wonder why people fight... 00:00:46 What have you done? 00:00:49 [The line I can't make heads or tails of] 00:00:53 I'm going... 00:00:57 ...to annihilate the human race. 00:01:03 Code 2-0-6! 00:01:04 Hurry! DO IT! 00:01:13 I will save you. 00:01:17 Who the hell are you? 00:01:22 I'm not human anymore!! 00:01:35 One life, cast aside 00:01:39 and reborn with an invulnerable body 00:01:41 will strike and destroy the iron demons. 00:01:45 If Casshern doesn't do it, 00:01:47 who will?

    • And again --**** (Score:2, Informative)

      by gnownaym ( 705075 )

      00:00:02 I'd like to present, to this body, one of our accomplishments.
      00:00:13 It's name is "neo-biology." [more like "newly created bio"]
      00:00:17 You've made all these already?
      00:00:19 I've heard your wife is ill...
      00:00:25 What are you going to do about Luna?
      00:00:28 I can't stay alone in a place like this when my friends are fighting.
      00:00:30 Cause unknown!
      00:00:31 "Neo-biology"is still incomplete?!
      00:00:38 What are you saying?
      00:00:40 That the military is moving. [its forces
  • I'd like to tell people about this, but I don't want to sound too clueless. How do you pronounce CASSHERN? Is it Cass-Hern? Or Cash-Hern? Do they say it in the trailer? Does Japanese even use the SH sound?

  • High-budget tokusatsu (Score:4, Informative)

    by Robotech_Master ( 14247 ) * on Saturday March 20, 2004 @05:33PM (#8622812) Homepage Journal
    It's interesting, but it's hardly new. It seems to be a big-budget form of the "tokusatsu" Japanese special-effects film genre--the same genre that brought us Power Rangers.

    If you're interested in checking out what the original version of some of the Power Rangers shows look like, or in looking into the more mature Kamen Rider series, there are quite a few digital fansubbers out there who have started putting the series out--for instance, TV Nihon [tvnihon.com], which has a lot of stuff up on BitTorrent [base0.net]. Also, there are badly-subtitled pirate DVD sets selling on eBay...

  • English Translation (Score:2, Informative)

    by dan5981 ( 590946 )
    An non-official English translation of the trailer can be found here [livejournal.com].

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